Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Florida, Day 2

Day 2 started off with some fishing from the beach, between
passing rainstorms. Aside from that, the day primarily revolved around
preparing my presentation for the evening’s scotch dinner.

Over the summer my father and I put together a scotch
tasting (8 single malts, each from a different distillery we had visited) and a
show of photos from our trip, for a small group of friends and family. I spent
quite a bit of time editing nearly 1500 pictures down to 500, but beyond that
and arranging the scotches in a logical order, there really was no advanced
preparation for the presentation; it was just a casual narrative of the images,
with my father and I recounting tales of our grand whisky adventure.

While that evening served as a model for the task at hand,
this event had to be taken much more seriously; I couldn’t just “wing it”. I
was the invited guest of the resort’s management, and had been brought there
with the expectation of putting together a very special event for their
members, an audience that would not easily be impressed.

Preparations had actually begun a month or two in advance,
with the work of selecting the four scotches for the evening. I was given lists
from a few wholesalers and a budget to stay within. The first hurdle came when
I was told that there would be one drink during a reception with cigars,
followed by the other three selections with dinner. Heavily peated single malts
and cigars go hand in hand, but the proper way to taste through a series of
whiskies is to start soft and light, then work up to the most pungent heavy
hitters. I voiced my concerns, but had to forge ahead while waiting to see if
the order of the evening could be amended.

I put together three groupings, two for cigars at the start
and one if they could be moved to the end. The first option was a gustatory
tour through the less well known of the most heavily peated single malts (in no
particular order):

Ledaig 10 yr

Longrow 10 yr or CV

Caol Ila 12 yr

Kilchoman (specific selection dependent on availability)

The second option started with a more mature offering from
the smoky end of the spectrum, then backed off the peat but maintained robust
flavor profiles:

A few days after submitting my proposed
options, I learned that the cigars would indeed go with the last whisky. But a
few more adjustments were necessary when I learned that the first three
whiskies would be served during the reception, with the appetizer and with the
entre, rather than being paired with the appetizer, entre and dessert, as I had
originally thought. With that in mind, I decided to change the Dalmore 12 yr to
Cragganmore Distiller’s Edition. That put me over budget, so I changed the
Aberlour from 16 yr to 12 yr. Then I found out that the Cragganmore DE was
unavailable. After pondering the options, I decided that Oban DE would be a
suitable substitution, making the final lineup:

As much time and effort as it took to come up with the final
selection, that was actually the easy part. Now I had to figure out what to say;
and just a critical was how much to say. It would seem logical to base my talk
on subjects I had covered here in the blog, but my audience was comprised of a
group of people who had been receiving my posts as part of a weekly email
newsletter – a regurgitation of my recent writings just wasn’t going to cut it.

I needed something original, and that came to me in the form
of a book that I had just finished reading. I was inspired by a passage from
this whisky based novel (a review is in the works) and that would be my opening
toast.

Perhaps I’m a master of procrastination, or a man cursed
with poor time management skills, or I subconsciously know that I do my best
work under pressure and purposely put myself in these situations; however you
look at it, I had little more than an opening quote with a few scant hours left
before the big event. I was even still vacillating on whether or not to
incorporate a slide show into my presentation.

I would have to talk about each whisky briefly (flavor
profile, region / distillery location, production methods). I decided to leave
the talks for the second and third selections at that, and not disrupt my
audience’s dinner.

With the first course, I could continue on with tales of some
of the wonderful people I met in Scotland and the conversations I
had with them. This would allow me to segue into the story of my discovery of
the novel I had just finished, which would lead to the quote / toast to open
the evening.

I made a last minute decision to go with the slideshow, and
running perilously low on prep time, I rapidly edited 500 images (from the
above-mentioned family event) down to 120. My last page of notes was barely
legible, but it was time to go.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was nervous, but I was
certainly feeling a tremendous amount of pressure to put on a good performance
and impress my guests. I opened well. What was essentially a keynote speech was
engaging and drew people in, not to mention being of an appropriate duration.
The second and third talks were informative but concise. However, I do have to admit
that between a slightly longer talk about the fourth whisky and getting drawn
off on a few tangents by my own slide show, I did get a little long winded at
the end. But I could see that I was starting to lose my audience, and I really
cranked up the pace for the last 30 or so images.

The whiskies were also well received, with the Aberlour
garnering the most positive feedback. The Auchentoshan may have even converted
a few vodka drinkers that were in the crowd.

Overall, the evening was a complete success, and there was
even some talk among the members of turning it into an annual event!

It was nice to always have a glass of single malt close at
hand during my presentation, but I did far more talking than drinking. However,
at the end of the evening I was able to sit down by myself and unwind with a
whisky. I decided to try something I’d never had before and put together proper
tasting notes.

Glenkinchie is one of the three Lowland single malts that is
currently in production and commercially available. The distillery dates to
1825, and lies in the countryside just east of Edinburgh.

Glenkinchie 12 year,
43% abv. The nose is elevated, malt, floral, grassy. It reminds me of bees and
pollen. The palate is on the light side of medium, fresh cut grass with a
little malt. Picks up intensity as it moves into the finish, unfortunately that
intensity comes as heat rather than flavor. It goes out of balance toward the
end, turning hot. Lonely grassy notes are the last man standing after
everything else fades away. Not bad, but not great.